October 23, 2019
A recent conflict I had was at work. I work at a fast-food restaurant as a cashier. Some of my responsibilities include counting registers, sweeping/mopping the floors, wiping down surfaces, cleaning the ice cream machine, and cleaning out lemonade/tea pitchers. On Wednesdays and Fridays, we are required to dump out the ice cream and remove it from circulation. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we are supposed to save the leftover ice cream to use the next day.
It has become a habit for my co-workers and me to make ourselves milkshakes before we close the ice cream machine, and we do this almost every day. Technically, we are only supposed to make ourselves free milkshakes on Fridays, since we dump the ice cream out. It is really hard to resist making ourselves milkshakes after long shifts, and my manager isn't around during closing, so we have been able to get away with it. However, eventually, we got caught.
As my co-workers and I were cleaning and organizing the store for closing, our manager Ana comes to the front and asks us to finish up what we're doing and meet her in the back for an employee meeting. We all looked at each other terrified because we knew she saw our milkshakes sitting on the counters and in the mini-fridges. We knew we were in trouble. And it wasn't just the cashiers that were doing this, it was everyone: the fry cooks, dishwashers, and other custodians.
After we finished up our tasks that we were working on, we all followed my manager to the kitchen where the meeting was going to be held, heads hanging low. My manager explained that it was wrong for us to take advantage of the privilege of being able to take home leftover food and have free milkshakes on Fridays. Formally, we are only allowed to have food/drinks purchased with our meal ticket worth six dollars and fifty cents per workday. Formally, we are supposed to throw away all leftover food and ice cream at the end of every day (excluding Fridays for ice cream). My manager explained that she was allowing us to take home food and feed our friends/families and have ice cream on Fridays, and this was not normal at other locations. With how many milkshakes we make for ourselves every day, we have been taking a good amount of money from the company, which I didn’t really ever stop to think about. When I started working there, everyone was already making milkshakes regularly at the end of the day, so I just hopped on the bandwagon and didn’t question it.
On the day that this meeting was held, my cookies and cream milkshake was sitting on top of the counter as I was busy counting a register in the back. That is when Ana walked to the front and noticed mine and the other milkshakes in the mini-fridge. So, I felt extremely guilty for this and for getting people in trouble that did not make a milkshake.
So, what did I do to resolve this conflict? First, I started by apologizing to my manager privately. I promised to not do this again and to never take advantage of any other privilege we are allowed. I plan to keep this promise. To top it off, I did my best to make sure everything was done correctly that shift and even stayed a little late to clean. My relationship with my manager is Authoritarian - Inferior because she is my boss. So, I respectfully accepted criticism from her and have since done my best to make up for my mistake. I did not question where her anger was coming from, because she has a right to correct me and take any necessary actions to reprimand me. I’m lucky she didn’t punish me, but I might not be so lucky next time.
